Chapter 3 #2
The Great Frontier Hotel wasn’t quite as nice as the Elk Lodge, but it would do. She pulled in and parked along the back of the property, making sure her SUV couldn’t be seen from the road.
Wordlessly, they emerged from the SUV. A quick glance around proved there were no dark trucks in sight.
“Come, Smoky.” Kendra pulled her backpack from the SUV, looping it over her shoulder. Good thing she had a change of clothes. Smoky went to get busy, before coming over to stand beside her. Dominic pulled his overnight case from the back seat and joined her.
Together, they headed inside. The sudden bright lights of the lobby made her squint. Dom towered over her, and his long stride had him reaching the counter first. “Do you have a suite available?”
“Yes.” The clerk smiled. “What’s your name?”
“Sullivan,” Kendra said quickly. “Put the reservation under Sullivan.”
“Of course.” The clerk tapped the name into her computer.
Dom frowned but didn’t argue. She knew it wasn’t much of a disguise, but she hoped that leaving Dominic’s name off the reservation might help. His scowl deepened when she handed the clerk her credit card.
“I’m not here to mooch off you,” he said in a low voice. “I would rather pay my own way.”
“I know that. You bought dinner after all. This is an attempt to keep you safe.” She took the keys and led the way down the hall to their first-floor suite. “Besides, I’m the one who insisted on sticking close.”
He didn’t respond, simply standing aside as she unlocked the door. She hoped he wasn’t going to be cranky all evening.
The suite had two bedrooms. She headed to the one to the right, leaving him to claim the other. Smoky followed her inside, sniffing the perimeter with interest. Kendra set her backpack down, then removed the collapsible water bowl and the .38.
“You have a gun?” Dom gaped in surprise.
“It was in my backpack.” She felt a little foolish for not mentioning it sooner, especially under the circumstances. “Chase trained me to hit what I’m aiming for. But obviously, having it tucked away wasn’t the smartest move on my part. I have a belt holster I can use from this point forward.”
“My dad taught me to shoot when I was a kid.” Dom grimaced. “Now that I know he was murdered, I’m looking at everything we did back then in a different light. Makes me wonder if he suspected he might be in danger someday.”
She nodded thoughtfully, filling the bowl with water and setting it down for Smoky. “Was your dad always a charter pilot?”
“For as far back as I can remember.” Dom pulled a laptop from his overnight case and set it on the table. “My mom died when I was three. I don’t remember her at all.”
“That must have been hard.” Kendra knew she and her siblings were blessed to have had their parents’ love and support. They had been married for thirty-eight years when they died.
“It was harder for my dad,” Dom said. “He never remarried. To be honest, I can’t even imagine why anyone would have paid Stuart Ramsey to sabotage his plane.” Dom dropped into a chair and began working on the computer.
“How are you going to hide your ISP?” She leaned over his shoulder to watch. “I’ve heard of that capability but have no idea how it works.”
Over the next few minutes, Dom described how he planned to reroute his ISP to hide their identity and their location. She found the information interesting, but also far more technically advanced than she’d anticipated. Kendra doubted she’d remember how to do this again if needed.
While she’d taken over most of the computer work for her family’s ranch, updating social media and renting cars and homes for her siblings as needed, her skills were nowhere near as good as Dominic’s.
She activated the new phones and powered them up, knowing she couldn’t put off calling Chase much longer. She wouldn’t put it past Burt Jones to call him first.
“Is this Kendra?” Her oldest brother’s voice held a mixture of concern and anger.
“Yes, Chase. I’m fine, nothing for you to worry about.”
“Where are you?” Anger overwhelmed the hint of concern. “I can’t believe you took off without telling anyone where you were going!”
She looked up at the ceiling, striving for patience. “Are you going to listen to what I have to say? Or continue to lecture me?”
She imagined steam blasting out of his ears, but to his credit, Chase didn’t explode. “Kendra, what is going on?”
“I’m with Dominic Lakeland. He’s the son of the pilot who was killed alongside our parents. We have new information that proves the crash wasn’t an accident. A man by the name of Stuart Ramsey was paid to sabotage the plane.”
Chase didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Why would anyone want our parents dead?”
“Dominic’s father, Gary Lakeland, was the real target. According to the man who confessed, he didn’t know our parents would be on the plane. That was part of the guilt that was eating at him all these years.”
Another long silence. “Where are you staying?”
Kendra knew her brother would hop into his vehicle and drive out there the moment she revealed their location.
“Wyn is pregnant, and you have Eli to consider. I don’t need your help at this point.
We’re safe. We’re only using disposable phones as a precautionary measure.
” That wasn’t the full truth, and she squelched the stab of guilt.
“Please, Chase, I’m asking you to trust my judgment.
If we run into trouble, I’ll call you, or one of the other siblings. I promise I won’t be reckless.”
“Taking off without a word to anyone in the family was reckless,” he shot back. “I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark about this new information. We all care about what happened six years ago.”
She knew that was true, but she was the only one who’d insisted the crash was no accident.
She was the one who’d requested the police broaden their investigation.
Something that hadn’t happened, mostly because they hadn’t been able to find enough of the plane to determine what had happened one way or the other.
It was only because of Ramsey’s confession that they knew now the plane engine had been tampered with. Discovering how it had been brought down wasn’t as important as understanding why.
Especially now that Dom was in danger.
“I don’t like this, Kendra. You’re usually more level-headed than this.”
She rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn’t see her response.
This was Chase’s attempt to convince her to act more responsibly.
Even though he had run headfirst into danger back when his son, Eli, had been kidnapped.
“I called so you and the others wouldn’t worry.
That’s being responsible. I’ll let you know if I need anything more.
That’s also being responsible. For now, we’re going to keep digging into Stuart Ramsey’s background to see what we can uncover. ”
Another long silence. Then, “You’re being awfully stubborn.”
“Why are you surprised? Stubbornness is a big part of the Sullivan DNA. I’ll be in touch, Chase.” With that, she ended the call. Setting the phone aside, she fully expected Chase to call her right back.
But he didn’t.
“Your brother sounds concerned about you.” Dom glanced at her, then turned his attention back to the computer screen. “He’ll blame me if anything happens to you.”
“No, he won’t hold my decision against you.” She couldn’t deny feeling relieved that the dreaded call home was behind her. “Are you sure your dad didn’t have another career? One prior to being a charter pilot?”
“I don’t appreciate you insinuating my dad had done something so bad that he was murdered.”
“I didn’t say he did anything bad, but maybe he was a witness to a crime. Something that caused someone to silence him, permanently.”
She half expected him to snap in outrage, but he turned and stared at her for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly. “I think that’s it.”
“What? That your dad witnessed a crime?”
“Yeah.” Dom scrubbed his hands over his face. “I think my dad was originally from the East Coast.”
She pulled up a chair to sit beside him. “What makes you say that?”
“Back when I was twelve or so, a family moved to Montana from New Jersey. I invited my new friend Toby to my house after school. I told my dad he had a funny accent. My dad told me not to tease him, that it’s not his fault he grew up in another state.
But within an hour of Toby being there, my dad started talking with an East Coast accent.
I thought he was teasing Toby, but when I mentioned it, he turned pale and immediately stopped talking.
” He shook his head. “It never occurred to me that he may have once lived in New Jersey. When I had to do a family tree for school, he told me we always lived in Montana. That my grandparents on both sides of the family were dead and that we had no cousins, aunts, or uncles.” Dom let out a harsh laugh.
“Even my teacher thought it was strange we didn’t have any extended family. ”
She stared at him. “You think your dad was placed in witness protection?”
He spread his hands. “I honestly don’t know. But it makes sense, don’t you think?” Dom turned and pulled up the website for the US Marshals Service. “Maybe I need to call them to find out.”
“It’s too late to do that tonight.” For some reason, she didn’t like the idea of making the call. Granted, their phones couldn’t be easily traced, but giving away their location seemed counterintuitive. “My sister-in-law Raine used to work for the marshals. We can reach out to her if you’d like.”
“If she’s not a marshal now, I’m not sure that will help.
I’ll leave a message.” Dom picked up the phone and dialed the number.
She could hear a canned voice mail response on the other end of the line.
“This is Dominic Lakeland, my father was Gary Lakeland, he died in a plane crash six years ago. A gunman has taken several shots at me in the past few hours. I need to know if I’m in trouble because of whatever my father might have witnessed at some point.
Please call me back at this number. Thanks.
” He lowered the phone. “That should get someone’s attention.
I bet we hear back from them first thing in the morning. ”
“Yeah.” She forced a smile. “It would be nice to get some answers.”
Dom stared up at the ceiling for a long moment. “I wonder why my dad never mentioned being a witness to a crime. I was twenty-two when he died. I can see keeping a secret when I was a kid, but once I was an adult, he should have come clean.”
“Honestly, Dom, let’s not jump to conclusions.
” She reached over to touch his arm. “We don’t know for sure he was in witness protection.
Maybe this is more related to a charter he did at one point or another.
My brother-in-law Logan ended up transporting drugs in his plane, something he never would have done willingly.
My sister Jess helped him uncover the truth, but they were both in danger because of a crime that he’d unwittingly participated in. ”
Dom frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that. My dad could have chartered a criminal who thought my dad knew more than he should.”
“Exactly.” She managed a reassuring smile. “Let’s keep digging into Stuart Ramsey’s background. He’s the one who committed the crime.”
“That makes sense.” Dom’s expression turned sheepish. “Sorry to go off the deep end.”
“Don’t worry about it. The worst that can happen is that someone from the US Marshals office calls back to say you’re crazy.” She offered a teasing smile.
Dom turned back to the computer and began a deep dive into Stuart Ramsey. “I’m surprised Helen gave me his date of birth.”
“Confidentiality rules don’t matter once a person is dead.” Her brother Trevor, who was an EMT, had often explained that he couldn’t talk about patients because of confidentiality. In this case, she’d give Helen the benefit of the doubt.
Dom nodded, but his attention was on the screen. After a few minutes, he turned to look at her. “Guess who worked in Jackson Hole as a plane mechanic?”
“Stuart? Really?” She leaned in to see the screen. “I wonder why he wasn’t questioned about the crash.”
“Stuart Ramsey didn’t live or work in Montana, so he wouldn’t have been on anyone’s radar.” Dom frowned. “Not sure how the man who paid him stumbled across him.”
“Lots of wealthy people vacation in Jackson, maybe the guy who paid him chartered a plane and met him at the hangar.” She was about to say more when Smoky abruptly lifted her head and pricked her ears forward. The K9 stared at the door, then slowly stood and began to growl low in her throat.
A sliver of unease snaked down Kendra’s spine. “What is it, girl?”
“Get down.” Dom grabbed her .38 as she bent to drag Smoky beneath the table seconds before a barrage of bullets slammed into the hotel room door.